living, who otherwise could not with safety associate themselves with the
other world, just as even at the present time it is not held lucky to
wear the garments of the departed. In the same manner the Mosaic law
commanded the Israelite to cover, at the time of death, the vessels used
in his tent. It has been remarked that white, and not black, is the
proper color for such drapery. The association of white with the dead, as
the hue of mourning, is ancient; it appears to me that the idea of ritual
purity, expressed by the color, is at the bottom of the custom. In
Hellenic times white continued to be the hue most closely associated
with the dead, albeit black, as the sign of melancholy, was also
introduced. The character of funeral rites, from Western Europe to Japan,
exhibits a similarity which, in my judgment, is to be explained only on
the supposition of very early and long continued historical contact,--a
contact otherwise demonstrable.

On the other hand, a world-old custom, which may be set down as human and
universal, dictated, and among all nomadic peoples continues to dictate,
the abandonment of any habitation in which a death has occurred. The
obvious motive is expressed in a surviving superstition that a second
decease is likely to follow a first. Death, naturally impersonated and
identified with the spirit of the departed, will return to the place
where he has once made himself at home, and in which he has proprietary
rights. This idea constitutes a superstition which stands directly in the
way of progress; thus the Navajo refuses to build a house, which at the
first mortality among his family it would be necessary to desert. The
cause of the general custom is to be sought, not in any sanitary
principle, but in the associations explained, acting with superstitious
force. In the course of time and with the advance of culture such
desertion is no longer possible, and some means must be found by which
the requirement shall be evaded; the desired escape is effected by such
alterations as shall vary the character of the mansion and indicate it as
a new place of abode, not subject to the perils of the home invaded by
death.

The remarks which have been offered are presented only by way of
suggestions which could be indefinitely extended. To construct a
commentary on the body of beliefs presented in this volume would be an
enticing but a laborious task; such notes, also, would far exceed in
volume the compass of thi